An Abundance of Gardening Lessons this Year!

So very much to learn .

Coneflowers in July

One of the many fantastic things about gardening is it would be hard to ever learn it all. As home gardeners, we can read, listen and watch all the content we can absorb and then, once you put all that learning into practice, there are still so many more lessons to learn because the conditions of every single garden are different! I thought I'd share a few of my lessons learned from this year and if you have others of your own, please do add!

Growing Native Honeysuckle Vine

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  trumpet honeysuckle fruits in November

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  honeysuckle fruits in November

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  trumpet honeysuckle in spring

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  trumpet honeysuckle in spring

I have grown native trumpet honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens) in three different gardens and a range of conditions. It is a flexible and easy to grow plant and I thought I had it down: the more sun, the more flowers. This year, after planting honeysuckle on an arch and pruning the spiraling growth back to the arch periodically through summer, mainly to allow for unimpeded passage, I realized this encourages much more repeated flowering after the initial flush of blooms in the spring and it generated lots of those wonderous translucent red berries in fall.

Growing Native Passionflower Vine

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  passionflower vine in late fall

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  passionflower

With a small garden, limited space and a desire to try growing every native plant out there, I had doubled up vines on another arch. I planted Carolina jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), native to the southeast, for flowers in spring and passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) for blooms in summer and fall. What I got was a tangled mass of foliage and a few sporadic flowers. By removing the Carolina jessamine entirely and pruning the passionflower vine back to one main stem, I got more passionflowers and fewer running roots popping up all over. I still advocate for planting passionflower in a pot and then sinking that into the ground because of its propensity to run, but this worked out pretty well. As with the honeysuckle vine, in fall, I have a lot more fruits too.

A Great Spring Flower and Groundcover for Shade: Robin's Plantain

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  robin's plantain in spring

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  robin's plantain in spring

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  robin's plantain in fall

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  robin's plantain in fall

I was new to this perennal plant last year. Robin's plaintain (Erigeron pulchellus var. "Lynnhaven Carpet') arrived as part of Backyard Bounty's Shade Garden kit. This is an excellent perennial for shade so far. I initially planted it in two locations: one under mature eastern red cedars and the second under a massive red oak. In both locations, the perennial grew well despite competition for moisture with tree roots. The small daisy like flowers in spring are light and airy. What really sold me is the way the fuzzy thick leaves cover the ground. They do lay flat in winter and mostly die back but for most of the year, they make a solid, and unusual groundcover.

Zing with Zinnias, Salvias & Sunflowers

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  white annual zinnias

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  autumn sage in fall

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  annual sunflowers

In my quest to grow as many natives as possible, I had more or less given up annuals, plants that typically flower for most of the season but do not winter over. This year, because part of my garden is newly planted, I did add zinnias (Zinnia) hailing from Mexico and South America, annual sunflowers (Helianthus), native to the U.S., and autumn sage (Salvia greggii) native to Texas. I will defintely plant these again if at all possible and the salvia can winter over in this area. These long blooming flowers significantly help the appearance of my garden during lulls when certain perennials go out of bloom and the next bloomers have yet to post. It adds zing!

Muhly Grass Instead of Black Fountain Grass

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  native muhly grass

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  non-native fountain grass

Black fountain grass (Cenchrus alopecuroides) native to Asia and Australia, is a graceful grass in fall. You may also know it by its former latin name, pennisetum. You can see it everywhere in October and November and that appears to be the problem. Black fountain grass is not yet on every list of invasives but it is increasingly being added. Several Virginia jursidictions have identified it as invasive and the National Park Service has identified infestations along the C&O Canal. I have watched it spread from an institutional landscape a mile from my home to neighbors' gardens and now into a nearby park. If you go to any garden centers in fall, you are likely to see it for sale. It is an aggressive spreader. If you have it in your garden, please consider digging it up and putting it in the trash. Native muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris), available with pink or white plumes, makes an excellent substitution! I'm fairly certain you won't regret taking black fountain grass out of your garden if you have it.

Deadheading Coneflowers

Coneflowers in July

If you grow coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) in any sort of mass you likely have experienced the joy of goldfinches feasting on the seedheads. I have always let the coneflowers go to seed thinking that is best for the birds. I recently heard a gardener talk about selectively deadheading coneflowers to promote continued flowering. This gardener let the strongest, most upright stems of coneflower go to seed. For the coneflowers that had already bloomed and were flopping, broken or otherwise less stately, he cut those stems to the base and placed the stems on the ground. This made the seeds available to wildlife and promoted reflowering of the coneflowers later in the growing season.

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  coneflowers gone to seed

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  coneflower in November

My little stand of coneflowers turns crispy brown by September. This year, by chance, two coneflowers are blooming in November and it is delightful. Next year, I'm going to try this gardener's deadheading method to see if I can get a decent number of blooms through the fall as well as seedheads for birds.

I so hope your garden has brought you both abundance, lessons and joy this year!

Happy Gardening.